There, on blustery winter days, was an Ohio bird-watcher’s best chance at finding sea ducks.

On a late November day near Cleveland in 1978, I got an unforgettable double whammy: I saw a
harlequin duck and a black scoter.

A drake harlequin is feathered art — as if Mother Nature commissioned Picasso to design the
duck.

Scoters are showy, too, particularly adult males. We have three species: black, surf and
white-winged.

The black scoter is deep ebony, with a bill that seems dipped in luminescent orange butter. Male
surf scoters are sometimes called “skunkheads” because of their black and white pattern. Coal-black
white-winged scoters have a white curlicue around the eye and an ivory wing patch.

The long-tailed duck is always a treat, especially the drakes. They’re adorned with long wiry
tail streamers and a gorgeous pattern of black and white. While rare in Ohio, the Great Lake to the
east, Ontario, gets them by the thousands.

Sea ducks dive for food with herculean plunges. Long-tailed ducks have been snared in fishing
nets at depths greater than 200 feet.

Harlequin ducks, which breed along rushing northern rivers, favor foraging in crashing surf
along rocky breakwalls. Museum specimens often have broken bones, the birds having been battered
against rocks by powerful riptides.

Mollusks are the mainstay of most sea ducks’ diet. Because clams are often attached to rocks
deep below the surface, these ducks are almost as at home underwater as on the surface. Thick,
powerful bills allow them to make quick work of their hard-shelled prey.

Not long ago, sea ducks were a big deal on Lake Erie. Their numbers have risen in recent decades
— especially scoters, thanks to the arrival of zebra mussels, which have flourished in the lake.
The non-native clams please the ducks’ palates, and the birds seemingly have adjusted their
migration routes to take advantage of the bounty.